Some of you with long memories might recall another time when I wrote about the human brain structure called the amygdala. The amygdala is a paired structure, one in each hemisphere. They, along with the hippocampus, have much to do with emotion and memory. Each amygdala is about the size of a shelled peanut. When there’s danger, emotionally or physically, the amygdala sounds the alarm.
I wrote about the amygdala in 2014 because it was coming up on election time in Canada, and a study had emerged suggesting that people with larger amygdalas tended to vote conservative whereas those with smaller amygdalas tended to vote Liberal or NDP. Before conservatives shout out: “More proof that we’re smarter!” that wasn’t quite what the study found. Amygdala size isn’t about IQ. The evidence suggested that big-amygdala people tend toward black-and-white decision-making. Politicians, parties and plat-forms are either obviously good or obviously bad. If big-amygdala people don’t like something about a candidate, his hair for example, that’s it for him. Small-amygdala people are more inclined to admit that moral and legal issues usually involve gray areas that require navigation.
During 2024, particularly during the US presidential election, I found out more about the amygdala that seemed to describe what was going on.
The amygdala, to put it simply, is the part of the brain that attaches emotion to event. A dangerous looking individual comes running at you out of the darkness. You freak out. You run away or destroy him with judo chops. Either way, it was the amygdala that punched the fight-or-flight button. Given less extreme stimuli, the amygdala is still responding emotionally all the time. Many parts of the brain may be determining how we feel about something later, but in the moment, how and how much we feel is up to our two tiny cerebral peanuts.
Then I read something new. I discovered that the wee amygdala plays a role in human lying.
If you’ve been raised to believe that lying is bad and wrong—and most of us have—then lying makes you feel bad. In brain terms, lying causes an emotional upheaval in the amygdala. Anxiety is unleashed, and perhaps fear, since people don’t like liars much and let you know.
But a strange thing happens in the brain if you keep on lying. The more you lie, the less commotion in the amygdala. The more you lie without public humiliation or other negative consequences, the more your amygdala calms down about it. Here’s the kicker. If you actually benefit by lying, your amygdala relaxes completely.
You can see what direction this is going. The liar who gains from lying tends to become a compulsive liar. Here, in my opinion, is the answer to why there are so many compulsive liars in politics, not just in Canada and the United States but globally. Lying politicians are present, and probably growing in number, because we have created them! We heard their lies, recognized them as liars, and voted for them anyway.
The question “why are so many liars attracted to politics?” has, therefore, two good answers.
Number one: we elect people despite their lying.
Number two: by accepting lies, we caused their amygdalas to become increasingly quiet: “Oh look, he or she, my human host the politician, lied again. Meh.”
He lied at every rally, in every city, and, because his amygdalas kept hearing cheers, they got more and more sedated.
Though I could be talking about a great many countries, including Canada, I am brought to this subject by the recent US presidential election. The world champion of political lying, hands down, is Donald Trump. During his first go as president of the United States, his lies were documented and counted. Here was a politician so worried about lying that he did it tens of thousands of times while in office. In the recent election, Trump kept it up. He lied relentlessly, at every rally, in every city, and because his amygdalas kept hearing cheers, they got more and more sedated.
I titled this column “The Dead Amygdala” because I believe that’s what happened. During the televised political marathon, Trump lied and lied. In response, his Republican audiences laughed and cheered. His amygdalas became so drugged by lack of any negative consequence, they upped and died!
I assume that science will get it right on my Dead Amygdala Theory. Symptoms: compulsive, monotonal lying; making no eye contact; making little sense. Who can forget the 40 minutes of a rally where The Donald didn’t speak at all. We’ll listen to music, he said. For 40 minutes, he stood there and swayed. Someone on-line aptly called it “weaving.” A surefire symptom of the Dead Amygdala: weaving.
When grandpa stops making eye contact, and sense, and starts weaving (and especially if he expresses a desire to run in the next election), it might be time for the home.
Fred Stenson’s many books include the novels Who By Fire, The Trade, Lightning and The Great Karoo.
____________________________________________
